Jerry Seinfeld tells a joke about older drivers to the effect that in Florida it’s customary to back out of the driveway without looking first. Indeed, part of our culture believes in stereotypes about older drivers: that they’re a danger to the rest of us; that they don’t use turn signals (or do but then don’t turn them off); that they drive too slowly; and that they migrate to Florida like birds.

The view of older drivers emerging from a number of recent studies paints a more sympathetic picture, especially when viewed in the context of other drivers.

A 2007 RAND Corporation study came to these surprising conclusions:

• Statistics show older drivers are 16 percent likelier to cause a crash than drivers aged 25 to 64. But younger drivers are 188 percent likelier than those aged 25 to 64 to cause a crash.
• Older drivers, who represent 15 percent of the driving population, cause only 7 percent of all two-car crashes, while younger people, who comprise 13 percent of drivers, cause 43 percent of all two-car crashes.
• Drivers aged 70 and older are less likely to cause a crash than those aged 55 to 65. Of course, older drivers also drive far fewer miles per capita each year than younger people. But on the basis of crashes per licensed driver, they look pretty safe.

The RAND study found that older drivers are only slightly likelier to cause an accident but are much more likely to be killed in one. In fact, older drivers are almost seven times more likely to die in a crash than young drivers are. This is attributed to the increasing physical frailty that overtakes people as they age.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has done a number of studies along similar lines. The IIHS summarizes the fragility issue this way:

"In terms of fatalities, older drivers are a danger mostly to themselves and their passengers, who also typically are older and thus more vulnerable to injuries."

Several other factors characterize older drivers as a group that make them less of a highway threat than many believe. One of the most important factor is that older drivers self-regulate.

Many older drivers curtail their driving, take only familiar roads, avoid rush hour, and don’t drive after dark. Young drivers, on the other hand, drive many more miles per capita and travel at all times of day, but are much less susceptible to fatal injuries if they do have a crash. The net result is that the older-driver pool self-selects in favor of the safest drivers in the group.

When it comes to the question of whether older drivers should face more stringent licensing requirements, the jury is still out. Typical restrictions, varying by state, include shorter renewal cycles, visual acuity tests, and in-person written and road tests. The IIHS says it’s not at all clear whether these steps make a meaningful difference in preventing crashes.

The state of Oregon, meanwhile, has adopted an interesting alternative. Rather than making impaired driving an age-based issue, Oregon treats all drivers the same. Hospitals, doctors, other first responders and in fact anyone else can fill out a short form requesting the Department of Motor Vehicles to review somebody’s driving skills. The DMV takes particular care to weed out tattle-tale reports, which officials have said are pretty easy to spot. But if there is any sound evidence that an Oregon driver is not operating a vehicle safely, then the agency can call that person in for some testing, and then perhaps suspend or revoke that driver’s license.

In general, these studies show that while your grandparents may dawdle in the slow lane, they are likely safer drivers than the whipper-snappers that pass them.

—Gordon Hard